Petrol Distributors Pledge Price Reduction Before Year End

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Product (ADITOP) in the South South region, Dr Nya Asuquo, has pledged to do everything within the reach of their members to ensure that petrol pump price is crashed before the end of the year.

Asuquo made the promise yesterday while interacting with journalists few days after inaugurating the state branch of ADITOP in Calabar.

He stressed that the association under his watch shall provide an alternative in the distribution and transportation of petroleum products across the country.

The BOT chairman stated that the association has mapped out strategies to reduce the landing cost of petroleum products at retail outlets across the six geo-political zones of the nation.

He averred that the oil sector of the nation’s economy has been monopolised by some associations through incessant strike actions without a corresponding positive impact on members of such organisations and citizens of the nation.

Asuquo lauded the Tinubu administration for the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), stressing that the association is poised to put its weight solidly behind a successful execution of the act.

“ADITOP started in 2012 with the quest to curtail the incessant strike actions’ effects on Nigerian citizens.

“We are also providing an alternative in the oil sector with more frantic and human-driven approaches that will reduce the humongous charges on the distribution value-chain of the downstream oil sector of the economy,” he said.

Asuquo, an immediate past Nigeria Ambassador to Uganda during the former president Muhammadu Buhari administration, refuted the insinuation that the association was out to fight other existing unions in the oil industry.

“This is unfounded, petty, childish and unreasonable because the sky of the oil industry is too big for birds to clash while flying.

“We are partners in the Nigeria better economic project, bringing new ideas on board for the market is filled but not close,” he stated.

ADITOP state chairman, Mr Ekpenyong Ayi, added that the association has come to stay in the country’s oil industry stressing that it is ready to synergise with other associations in the petroleum value chain to crash the price of petroleum products for the good of the masses.